Parkside
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 28All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Parkside Campground is located 12 miles south of Red Lodge, Montana, just off the scenic Beartooth Highway. The area is a popular location for fishing, hiking and scenic driving. Greenough Lake less than a mile away. Glacier Lake, Hellroaring and Lake Fork Trailheads are nearby. Keep reading
Recreation
The Main Fork of Rock Creek and nearby 5-acre Greenough Lake offer rainbow trout fishing. The lake is also open to canoeing and kayaking. The Beartooth Wilderness can be accessed via the Hellroaring and Lake Fork Trailheads, both nearby. Visitors also enjoy mountain biking and hiking on the Parkside National Recreation Trail. Hellroaring Road is open to off-road vehicles.
Facilities
The campground offers two group sites and several single-family sites, three of which are accessible. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Trash can be deposited at the Greenough Lake Campground.
Natural Features
The campground sits in the shadow of the Beartooth Range on the banks of Rock Creek. A forest of aspen and pine covers the area. A variety of wildlife, including grizzly bear, deer and elk, make their home in the surrounding area. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 537-8888.
Nearby Attractions
The charming town of Red Lodge, Montana offers a variety of dining and lodging options, galleries, shops and summer events. The Home of Champions Rodeo is held on the Fourth of July weekend, Beartooth Bike Rally and Iron Horse Rodeo in mid-July, Mountain Man Rendezvous in late July and the Festival of Nations in early August. The Beartooth Highway was deemed "the most beautiful drive in America" by the late Charles Kuralt. It snakes across the rugged Beartooth Mountains from Red Lodge to Cooke City, Montana, and is the highest elevation highway in the Northern Rockies. Along the way, visitors are treated to sweeping views and plentiful outdoor recreation opportunities. Yellowstone National Park's Northeast Entrance is 55 miles from the campground via the Beartooth Highway. The park offers unparalleled wildlife viewing opportunities, as well as breathtaking scenery and unique geological features.
Charges & Cancellations
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This cancellation processing fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
What the agency tells you
Standard Single Family sites: Recreation Use Fee allows ONE camping unit ONLY. Double and Group sites: Refer to Specific Site # for capacity limits.
Extra Vehicles: Cannot be paid for in advance - upon arrival coordinate with the host for payment and where to park.
Late Arrivals: campers are not considered a "no-show" until 24 hours after arrival date check in time. Our policy is that your site will not be released before that.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
FIRST COME FIRST SERVE sites must be booked in person. DO NOT call to determine availability, as they are only available on-site.
Bears frequent the area; please obey all food storage rules and regulations. Check with your host for details.
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org. Firewood bundles can be purchased from the campground host.
Click here for more information on the Custer National Forest
Opening and closing dates are weather permitting, please call 928-537-8888 for more information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 28 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 9
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings are provided, as are accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Trash can be deposited at the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…as are accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Trash can be deposited at the Greenough Lake…”
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 230th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
28 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 28 mapped sitesAll 28 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 28 of the 28 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 26 of the 28 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA PARKSIDE | A | group standard area nonelectric | 93 ft | 259 ft | 2,375 ft | |||
| AREA PARKSIDE | B | group standard nonelectric | 93 ft | 166 ft | 2,388 ft | |||
| LOWE | 16 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 108 ft | 139 ft | 2,454 ft | $20 | |
| LOWE | 17 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 79 ft | 171 ft | 2,563 ft | $20 | |
| LOWE | 18 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 74 ft | 213 ft | 2,638 ft | $20 |
| LOWE | 19 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 74 ft | 213 ft | 2,701 ft | $20 |
| LOWE | 20 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 59 ft | 239 ft | 2,720 ft | $20 |
| LOWE | 21 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 59 ft | 180 ft | 2,770 ft | $20 | |
| LOWE | 22 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 74 ft | 187 ft | 2,803 ft | $20 | |
| LOWE | 23 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 55 ft | 242 ft | 2,805 ft | $20 | |
| LOWE | 24 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 55 ft | 298 ft | 2,769 ft | $20 |
| LOWE | 25 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 84 ft | 362 ft | 2,633 ft | $20 |
| LOWE | 26 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 84 ft | 343 ft | 2,568 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 01 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 259 ft | 164 ft | 2,133 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 02 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 87 ft | 97 ft | 1,834 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 03 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 87 ft | 175 ft | 1,749 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 04 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 110 ft | 147 ft | 1,675 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 05 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 79 ft | 174 ft | 1,540 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 06 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 79 ft | 158 ft | 1,507 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 07 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 104 ft | 129 ft | 1,405 ft | $20 |
| UPPE | 08 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 83 ft | 108 ft | 1,287 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 09 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 83 ft | 105 ft | 1,208 ft | $20 |
| UPPE | 10 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 94 ft | 104 ftWyoming Creek | 1,087 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 11 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 110 ft | 104 ftWyoming Creek | 1,054 ft | $20 |
| UPPE | 12 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 77 ft | 235 ftWyoming Creek | 1,179 ft | $20 |
| UPPE | 13 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 77 ft | 280 ftWyoming Creek | 1,233 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 14 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 94 ft | 190 ftWyoming Creek | 1,152 ft | $20 | |
| UPPE | 15 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 98 ft | 201 ft | 1,244 ft | $20 |
25 of 28 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Limber PineCuster National Forest · 0.3 mi
Greenough LakeCuster National Forest · 0.4 miM-K CampgroundCuster National Forest · 1.9 miRattin CampgroundCuster National Forest · 4.6 mi
Rattin CampgroundCuster National Forest · 5.5 miFrom U.S. Highway 212, turn off at Rock Creek Road (Forest Road 2421). Go 0.3 miles to the campground entrance on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Red Lodge, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 17°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Parkside is in Montana’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Troy Downing (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →